>> According to Mr. Stengel, who was in the conversation, Mr. Kerry turned to Mr. Cui and asked: “Have we ever limited where you can go?”

> Mr. Cui replied: “Not yet.”

That's an interesting reply. It seems the Chinese govt. doesn't shy from and would even benefit from a higher intensity conflict with the West especially US. So they are trying to ratchet it up a bit. They didn't give any official reason for closures, but it seems one of the reasons is to have US respond and close Confucius Institutes. Which in turn would elicit another response from the Chinese and so on, up until it gets to a level they are comfortable with.